Online MHA vs. Online MBA: What’s the difference?

Leaders in health care need to understand how to effectively navigate the unique obstacles that impede the success of medical institutions. While an online Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) program may provide general knowledge about managing a variety of firms, an online Master’s in Health Administration (MHA) hones in on developing the leadership techniques that are most pertinent to performing well as a manager in the health care industry. By educating themselves about the key differences between online MHA and online MBA programs, health care professionals can form an accurate idea of which higher education program will best complement their individual career objectives.

Online MHA vs Online MBA

Health care professionals often view advanced education as a great opportunity to obtain a more diverse range of competencies and improve their professional credibility. Both an MHA and an MBA degree program will likely teach students how to think like leaders, making them better qualified for senior positions. Additionally, either choice will help graduates understand advanced business concepts that can be fundamental to improving their job performance.

Although there are similarities between the two programs, there are also defining differences. MHA programs are designed to highlight advanced business concepts as they apply to medicine, but an MBA program targets the fundamentals of running any and all types of businesses. This means that practicing health care professionals who wish to advance their careers into an administrative role will be better served by earning an MHA degree.

What is an Online MHA Program?

Online MHA programs are designed to help shape health care professionals into leaders in their respective discipline. The coursework centers upon teaching students on how to make sound decisions and evaluate/reform health care policies. They are also taught how to adapt specific leadership styles and tactics to suit the needs of different health-related work environments.
These are some specific professionals skills that can be acquired through an online MHA program:

● Ethical Knowledge – Health care professionals must understand how to protect the privacy of their patients. Therefore, MHA instructors teach students how to ethically manage their patient’s private information.
● Health Care Policy – Maintaining order in a health care institution requires an array of coordinated policies that dictate how patients, care providers, and administrators should interact with one another. Through an MHA program, professionals can learn exactly how health policies impact them as leaders and how they can ensure that their colleagues conform to the regulations that govern them.
● Health Business Finance – Often times, managing the financial strategy of a health care businesses requires a different approach than in other industries due to
● Executive Skills – As the ones responsible for ensuring productivity within their teams, administrative health care professionals must know how to guide their subordinates toward success by incorporating tactics like mentorship into their management strategies.

What is an Online MBA Program?

MBA programs help business people understand cutting edge concepts and techniques that are being used to operate today’s businesses. This entails coursework that provides a balanced understanding of topics like marketing, economics, finance, and management. While this credential is valuable for people who want a deeper understanding of how successful organizations are run, it is usually a generic degree and therefore does not provide an expert level of instruction on any individual specialized professional discipline. For some professionals, this could mean that their MBA holds less value to their careers than a specialized degree, such as an MHA.

How an MHA Benefits Health Care Professionals

These skills can be highly beneficial in many different senior health care occupations, like clinical nurse management. In this role, experienced nurses combine their clinical expertise and leadership acumen to direct, organize, and supervise a group of nursing staff members. Completing an MHA degree will benefit clinical nurse managers by ensuring that they have an advanced comprehension of how to efficiently manage interdisciplinary teams as they evaluate and improve existing health services.
As a complement to these administrative proficiencies, an online MHA program also emphasizes sharpening the students’ understanding of the legal, technological, and financial aspects of health care businesses. This positions them as stand-out candidates for jobs that require an interdisciplinary understanding of health administration.

Networking Opportunities for Online MHA Graduates

Another important and often discounted benefit of earning an online MHA is that it offers an opportunity to network with professionals who are already distinguished in the health care profession. These professionals could be school faculty or members of professional organizations like the American College of Health Care Executives (ACHE)—a professional society that promotes excellence in health care management. As organizations like the ACHE are comprised of leaders with expertise in variety of different medical domains, aspiring health care professionals can join them to be exposed to many unique perspectives of the different career paths that exist in health administration.

While an MBA degree is not inferior to an MHA, the MHA is a considerably more appropriate choice for professionals who wish to advance a career in health care. Unlike the MBA, it centers on building up the students’ ability to productively oversee the administration of health related services. In this sense, educated health professionals should pursue a Master’s of Health Administration if they want to become better equipped to identify and solve the various problems that impact the health care industry.

Learn More

At Regis, we give you more pathways to pursue your goals in healthcare administration. As a dedicated leader of health administration education, we welcome ambition-driven, self-motivated professionals like you from all health care settings. Gain special insight into areas like management, communications, health informatics, and health policy through our Online Master of Health Administration.

Regis College, founded in 1927, is a multifaceted Catholic University in Greater Boston with 2,000 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students in the arts, sciences, and health professions devoted to engagement, service, and advancement in the global community. Regis College offers majors and graduate/professional programs to prepare students for in-demand fields such as nursing, health, public service, education, and business communication.

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Regis is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

M.S. in Nursing is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, ACEN.

Regis Online Bachelor of Social Work program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CWSE).

Regis Online Master of Social Work program is currently in pre-candidacy for accreditation by the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation